Kernel panic

[Andrewski]

I compiled a kernel as best I could for my laptop (see my other recent post) but it's not working. It loads about a screenful of data and then concludes (right about where it wants to mount the root filesystem, AFAICT) with the following:

VFS: Cannot open root device "hda5" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option

Now that sounds to me like I forgot to add the "root=" option to the kernel line in my grub configuration. (That may be intuitive to some, but not me!) Here's what I have therein:

/boot/grub/menu.lst:

kernel (hd0,0)/kernel-2.6.3-15mdk root=/dev/hda5

I took the root= part from Mandrake's auto-setup; that's one of the options it has for the vmlinuz kernel image.

 

Can anyone offer any pointers at this point? Thanks in advance!

[ac_dispatcher]

kernel (hd0,0)/kernel-2.6.3-15mdk root=/dev/hda5

 

That is where your problem is. From what I think that line tells your computer:

 

your kernel is found on your first drive first partition (hd0,0) in the root ( / ) directory. and your root directory in on /dev/hda5.

 

Usuially the kernel and initrd are located in the /boot directory. I use grub on my Gentoo box. Here is my grub config:

 

 

title Gentoo 2004.X

root (hd0,1)

kernel (hd0,1)/boot/kernel-2.6.7-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/hda2 init=/linuxrc vga=0x31a gentoo=nodevfs video=vesa:ywrap,mttr splash=silent hdc=ide-cd psmouse.proto=imps

initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.7-gentoo-r8

 

My Gentoo Distro is on 1 partition only (hda2). So my kernel is also on hda2 in the /boot directory. In grub that is:

 

kernel (hd0,1)/boot/kernel-2.6.7-gentoo-r8

 

or:

hda1 = (hd0,0)

hda2 = (hd0,1)

hda3 = (hd0,2)

hda4 = (hd0,3)

 

So From what I read if your Mandy distro is on hda5 you grub should look like this:

 

kernel (hd0,4)/boot/kernel-2.6.3-15mdk root=/dev/hda5

 

Give it a try

[Andrewski]

Yes, but I have a boot partition in front of my root one; they're separate. So, IIRC, /boot is indeed (hd0,0) and / is hda5. In fact, I copied both from my working Mandrake kernel. Thus the problem....

 

I did have one thought: /boot is ext2 and / ext3: do I need either/both of those built-in to the kernel, or can I load them modularly? ("Modularly? :unsure: )